The Story Behind the Story: Something Fishy

This month's story comes courtesy of the 2014 NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. In Round 2 of the challenge, I was assigned the following prompt:

Genre: Science Fiction
Subject: Sushi
Character: Dentist

My task? In two days, write a 2,000-word story based on the prompt.

My NYC Midnight stori always begin with panic--minutes, hours, or days of "WTF am I going to do with that?" This was no exception.

I pretty quickly came up with the equation sci fi + sushi = alien fish. But where to go from there?

Then I remembered reading a novel called Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. If I remember correctly, it's the first book of his Robot series. What I remembered is that Caves is essentially a mystery story in a science fiction setting. I decided to take the same approach in my story.

From there, the words flowed quickly. It was like transcribing a movie that played out in front of me.

As I began winding down the story, bringing Jonah closer to whodunit and why, I checked the word count: 1,998.

I had two words left, and I still hadn't solved the mystery. Oops.

I gave the Delete button a work-out and quickly tied up the loose ends.

The result is the story posted here. It's not perfect, but it is a fun little romp. One of my writers' group compatriots said the light tone reminded her of stories by Connie Willis, who wrote two of my favorite books: To Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. (Thanks, Heidi!)

Someday, I might revise the story, fix the flaws pointed out by the NYC Midnight judges and my writers' group, but for now, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Click here to read "Something Fishy."

Dog Days

You know in the movie UP how the dogs had collars that translated their barks into human language? I want one. Desperately.

The last few weeks have been rather frustrating for me and el perro. It began with the indignity (for him) of a visit to the vet for his semi-annual senior exam. Everything checked out as expected except for one blood test, for an enzyme that measured heart function. A normal dog would have an enzyme count of about 900. A sick dog would have a count of 1800. My dog? A count of more than 3700. The vet and I were both shocked by the results. With a off-the-charts count like that, Benji should have a laundry list of symptoms, but when the vet ran through the list with me, I could honestly say Benji had not a single one. That left the dear doggy doctor scratching his head. What to do? What to do?

The answer, it seemed, was medication. Even though the dog was not acting sick, something was clearly wrong with his heart function. So, I went home with two medications and crossed fingers.

Things went well for about 24 hours. One of the meds--an antibiotic to knock out any possible infection--was supposed to be taken twice a day with food. Benji, at first, would only eat once a day. And then not at all. I kick myself for not anticipating this. He reacted the same way the last time I had to given him antibiotics. I ended up stopping the treatment that time just so he'd start eating again. I did the same this time, but now my dear beloved doggie won't eat dog food. At all. Last time, it took me two weeks to find a new brand of dog food that he'd eat. We're into week 3 this time and we're not even on the dog food continent.

But a dog has to eat. The question is, what? Turns out, my dog is a pickier eater than I am. So three or four times a day, we do this little dance over and over:

For the moment (i.e., until he changes his mind), he prefers freshly cooked ground beef. That's right: Freshly. Cooked. As in unless he watches me cook it and pour it from the pan into his bowl, he won't eat it. No cooking a whole bunch at once, storing it in the fridge, and doling it out as needed. Nope. Must be freshly cooked. I've spent more time at the stove for the dog than for myself. 

Also, I can't mix anything with the beef--which does not bode well for his kidneys. Because of his kidney failure, he's supposed to be on a reduced protein diet. That seems to have gone out the window. I tried mixing some rice with his beef. He ate the beef and picked out the rice kernels. I found them scattered around my kitchen floor.

I would give my right arm to be able to have a conversation with the dog, to find out what the heck is going on in his doggy head, and to explain why it's important for his health and my bank account for him to go back to his previous diet. Barring that, I'm thinking perhaps a personal canine chef might be the answer...

Better Luck Next Time

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my shock at advancing past the first round of this year's NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. Well, it is with a bit of relief that I announce my short story challenge journey has come to an end.

My Round 2 short story--a sci-fi romp about sushi and a dentist--did not finish in the top 5 of my heat, so I did not advance to the finals. I'm not disappointed. I had fun writing this story, which ended up being a sci-fi mystery about a sushi restaurant suspected of using alien fish. In a roundabout way, it was inspired by Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel, a sci-fi mystery about a murder in a future where humans, aliens, and robots coexist but only very tenuously. I appreciated the sci-fi of Asimov's story, and his effort to blend genres, but the mystery in Caves just wasn't all that well-crafted. Hopefully, mine is a bit better in that regard. I know the sci-fi part of my story doesn't hold a candle to the master's.

My Short Story Challenge story was just fun, and I know the NYC Midnight judges tend to look for more than that when choosing the writers that advance to the next round. Consequently, I was saved from having to write an entire story in 24 hours this past Saturday, a relief after a week in which I had to put in long hours at work.

Now I have time to practice my craft without the pressure of a deadline and to recharge my writing batteries before the next NYC Midnight competition. (Did someone say 2014 Flash Fiction Challenge?)

The Story Behind the Story: Getting There

Some years back, I watched a news report about a couple who almost drove into Lake Michigan because their GPS told them to take a wrong turn. More than one, I'd imagine, to get that close to the water. I laughed, because the whole situation seemed ludicrous. I mean, how could you NOT notice you're about to drive into one of the Great Lakes?

The news story was one of many I encountered about the fallible nature of GPS systems. Every one reaffirmed my belief in the power of the paper map--and planted another seed of a story.

That story was "Getting There."

Click here to read "Getting There."

Writing Process Blog Tour: How I Write

Welcome to my stop on the Writing Process Blog Tour!

I was tagged for this honor by Shari Bonin-Pratt, who has been a source of encouragement and camaraderie for me and who had some damn good ideas for improving my novel. Thanks, Shari! Please take some time to visit her blog, one of last week's Blog Tour stops.

Next week the blog tour visits my fellow writer Melissa Marsh. More on this talented woman later.

And now, with no further ado, my answers to the Blog Tour questions:

What am I working on at the moment?

Writing a Letter Home (1875) by George Goodwin Kilburne. Courtesy of Bonhams via Wikimedia Commons.

Not counting the freelance writing I do as my day job, I have three works-in-progress. Each is in a different stage of development. I have a novel, my first, which I'm polishing in preparation for the long querying road. I sketched out the first scenes of The Novel, as I call it, ten years ago. I finished Draft 3 a couple of weeks ago. I am very ready to get this baby done and send it out into the world.

Then I have a short story that I am revising. This particular story is a ghost story that placed first in its heat in the first round of the NYC Midnight 2014 Short Story Challenge. I really like the story and I've been blown away by the responses it has gotten from the challenge judges and my critique groups. So I'm working to flesh it out a bit, with hopes that I can eventually find a market for it.

Lastly, I just started a new piece of flash fiction inspired by the story of Achilles. If everything goes as planned, I'll be posting that story on the Fiction First page of this site on June 1st.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I'm going to skip the genre part of this question because I write in many genres. My short story files include tales of literary fiction, suspense, ghost stories, science fiction, fantasy, and romance. Then there's my novel, which is either magical realism or fantasy. I'm not sure on which side of the fence it falls. I can argue either case.

So what what makes my work different in general? I think it's my clean style. To paraphrase a colleague in one of my writers' groups, I pack a big punch in a few words. Of course, that means I'm also prone to using too few words--which is where my writing groups come in. They're great at pointing out where I've left gaps in the story and what needs more explanation or clarity.

Why do I write what I do?

My glib answer to this is, I write what the voices in my head tell me to. That's not entirely a joke. The narrative voice is always the first thing that comes to me. Sometimes that voice comes and goes very quickly and the story never gets off the ground. Sometimes that voice sticks around and becomes more and more insistent and the story takes off.

I write what I do because my head is a crowded place. Because there are an infinite number of characters who want to tell me an infinite number of stories. Because giving voice to those characters helps me find my own voice. Because if I didn't give voice to those characters, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

How does my writing process work?

Let's start with a clarification. I work as a freelance writer so I do write every day for hours at a time. However, when I say I write and when I explain why I write what I do and when I describe my writing process below, I'm really talking about writing fiction--the writing I do for me, rather than for my clients.

As for my (fiction) writing process, here's what I don't do: I don't write (my fiction) every day. I don't write (my fiction) for hours at a time. I don't set word count requirements for my (fiction) writing sessions. I don't set deadlines (for my fiction).

I write when I can. Sometimes that's 10 minutes at the end of a work day. Sometimes it's two or three hours or more on a weekend. Some days, if they've been long work days and my brain is fried and my eyes are tired or if it's a night when I have plans to actually go out into the world and interact with other human beings, I don't write at all.

Vally (1888) by Paul Hoecker. Courtesy of Gerhard Becker, Neuried via Wikimedia Commons.

I joke that I write in a dark corner of my basement, because that's where my office is. But I really only do my day-job work there. That desk, that computer, those overflowing file drawers and bookcases, that small little window well, are so closely associated in my mind with my freelance writing that it's no longer conducive to writing my fiction. Instead, for my fiction, I grab my laptop and stretch out on my living room sofa, or go to the library, or grab a table at the Barnes & Noble cafe, or slide into a booth at Panera.

If I'm just starting a story or struggling with scene, I leave the laptop behind and grab my spiral notebook and pen. I find writing by hand is more effective when I need to work slowly, when the ideas aren't flowing. I write by hand until I get stuck, then I type what I've got into my computer. If the ideas start flowing again, I keep typing until I get stuck. Then I go back to pen and paper and repeat the process.

Another quirk of my process, especially for my novel, is that I don't always write my stories in chronological order. In other words, I don't start at the beginning and write scene after scene in the order they appear in the story. I write scenes as they come to me and once I have a collection, I arrange them in some semblance of order and start writing bridges between them.

I also like to have more than one thing going at a time, as you might have guessed from my answer to the first question. That way, if I get really stuck on one project, I can jump on another. If I'm puzzling out a big change on The Novel but only have ten minutes to write, I spend those ten minutes on whatever short piece I'm working on. If I have an hour or more, I might spend it all on The Novel or split it between projects. It all depends on my mood.

I guess, if I had to describe my writing process in one word, that word would be flexible.

---

Next week, the Writing Process Blog Tour will continue with Melissa Marsh.

Melissa's book

Melissa earned an MA in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she focused on World War II. Her work has appeared in America in WWII magazine and her book on the POW camps in Nebraska during World War II is now out from The History Press. An avowed chocoholic, Melissa writes historical fiction set during World War II, combining her love for fiction and history. Visit her website: www.melissamarsh.net or follow her on Twitter @WW2HistoryGal.